Currently, the Catholic Charismatic Center is located at 1412 Fifth St. NW.  The first Charismatic Center was in a classroom at St. Pius X High School. This is when the high school was located on the corner of Indian School and Louisiana, when it was across the street from the Winrock mall.  This was in 1976 one year after the first Southwest Catholic Charismatic Conference (SWCCC) was held at the Glorietta Baptist Center, in Glorietta, New Mexico.

     As a result of the success of the Conference and the local growth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Archdiocese, it was believed that a center was needed to plan for future conferences, minister to people who were involved with the Charismatic Renewal and to the Church in general.  Shortly afterwards, the different prayer groups pitched in money for the purchase of an abandoned Mennonite church. The need for a centralized building to house the steady growth of the Renewal was well-founded.  A captioned picture in an article from the Albuquerque Journal (c. August 15, 1977) states: “Archbishop Robert Sanchez addresses 5,000 faithful(s) at (the) Charismatic Conference.” The article also says that there were 34 priests and deacons in attendance. There was a Catholic revival going on!

      In 1968 a young man named John Leary brought the Catholic Charismatic Renewal to Albuquerque.  He and his wife Jan held prayer meetings at their home, and at the University of Albuquerque (now St. Pius X High School) where they would introduce Roman Catholics to the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  (Go to a brief overview of the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.)  The U of A was located on the West side of Albuquerque, and it was discerned that a prayer meeting should be started on the East side as well. In June of 1969 Fr. Carl Hammer e started a prayer meeting at his parish, Our Lady of the Assumption which was on the West side.

      In the beginning they met in the small chapel in the church with no more than twenty people in attendance.  Soon, however, the numbers began to grow.  When they reached about a hundred people they decided to move the prayer meeting into the parish hall.  The numbers continued to grow until there were anywhere from 400-500 people in attendance every Friday evening. 
    Although there were mostly Roman Catholics in attendance, there was a good representation from Protestant denominations too, such as Lutherans, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, and others. There was rarely, if ever a mention of denominational differences at this time.  The only thing that was important to these charismatics was the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  That was the focal point of their ecumenical relationship.

     Today there aren’t as many people involved with the Charismatic Renewal in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe as there once was. But the Catholic Charismatic Center continues to minister through teaching, seminars, retreats, healing, prayer groups and the annual Southwest Catholic Charismatic Conference.  Holy Fire Praise has been ministering at the Center for about 25 years.